Replacement bus services not turning up

[ricoblade]

I noticed that this weekend there is a replacement bus service running from Lincoln to Sheffield so I decided not to travel.

Apparently, this morning at least one bus did not turn up at Retford and the Virgin staff were adopting a "nothing to do with us" attitude as the expected Northern rep had also failed to show. They were telling passengers that they had no way of finding out the status of any bus.

There are a lot of disgruntled people on the Retford Facebook pages. i pointed them at @northernassist (hope that's right) but was interested in the views of the experts on here as to what should happen in these circumstances and the avenues of redress.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

If all reasonable attempts to obtain transport fail (e.g. asking any station staff available, using help points, contacting the TOC), then after a reasonable amount of time (e.g. 1 hour or so) I would find it acceptable to arrange alternative transport such as taxis, or regular buses if these are practicable. You could then recover this from the TOC as a breach of Condition 28.2 of the NRCoT.

This is obviously on top of the applicable delay compensation.

 

[MrGrumpy]

The staff are right, buses aren't trackable so they can't give info on where buses are. However, a call to the relevant TOC control should be made and they can contact their bus controller (if there is one) and they should be able to follow it up but they won't be able to tell where a bus is either, just whether one has been provided or not . It's a bit time consuming but it's the only way to track replacement buses. It isn't uncommon either for buses to be planned and foul-ups to occur during the booking phase and also you'll invariably get drivers who are unfamiliar with the routes and rely on maps to drive them (which you shouldn't technically read whilst driving). Having been out with a bus driving friend on several replacement buses, he's been grateful for the map reading help! There might be some recourse to Delay Repay if you end up getting a later bus than required, but I'm no expert on Delay Repay so can't be sure.

EDIT - I will add that some companies with modern bus fleets will have trackers on board only accessible by the owning company, so there is some light at the end of the tunnel when getting the info.

 

[najaB]

Apparently, this morning at least one bus did not turn up at Retford and the Virgin staff were adopting a "nothing to do with us" attitude as the expected Northern rep had also failed to show. They were telling passengers that they had no way of finding out the status of any bus.

It's not acceptable for staff to have a 'tough luck' attitude with stranded passengers, but they were being truthful. If Northern had arranged the alternative transport then it really is up to Northern to ensure that it runs (and provide alternatives if it doesn't). As @MrGrumpy said, most buses aren't trackable and for all they knew it could have been right around the corner. If they had put passengers in taxis and the bus turned up 5 minutes later who would foot the bill?

What they should have done is got on the phone to their control to speak with Northern control to find out what the situation was rather than leaving the passengers in the dark.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Most (but not all) buses and coaches do have trackers and "green road" (https://greenroad.com/uk/industry/bus-coach/) fitted these days, but that can only be accessed by the bus/coach company, so you need to know who that is first!

I have been on many tours of town centres with RRB drivers who can't find the station-or at least a bus route to it

 

[185143]

One of my friends travelled from Romiley to Manchester and back on the rail replacements yesterday.

Or at least... he tried to! He ended up sharing a taxi to Stockport with a few others as 2 buses didn't show, and on the way home the last bus didn't show-so got put in a taxi by Northern.

 

[Gagravarr]

GWR seemed to be having lots of problems with their buses yesterday. First Hanborough to Oxford service didn't turn up and bus rep refused to book taxis, then going back the 17:05 bus from Oxford to Hanborough was about 90 minutes late departing "due to delays with the bus coming in from Moreton". You'd have thought that from Oxford they could have found another bus to take people, or failing that put them in taxis, but apparently GWR felt it was fine to just leave everyone for the Cotswolds line standing in the carpark for 90 minutes to save a bit of cash on extra buses or taxis...

 

[Merseysider]

That’s par for the course with GWR I’m afraid.

 

[Llanigraham]

GWR seemed to be having lots of problems with their buses yesterday. First Hanborough to Oxford service didn't turn up and bus rep refused to book taxis, then going back the 17:05 bus from Oxford to Hanborough was about 90 minutes late departing "due to delays with the bus coming in from Moreton". You'd have thought that from Oxford they could have found another bus to take people, or failing that put them in taxis, but apparently GWR felt it was fine to just leave everyone for the Cotswolds line standing in the carpark for 90 minutes to save a bit of cash on extra buses or taxis...

Perhaps there were NO additional buses available, or no extra bus drivers.
Perhaps none of the taxi drivers wanted to do those trips.
People seem to forget that GWR (and others) do not have fleets of buses or taxis on standby.

 

[furlong]

Perhaps none of the taxi drivers wanted to do those trips.

But perhaps they would if GWR didn't make them wait so long before they get paid for the journeys?